Ofsted report produces 'no surprises' for Spalding Grammar School

Spalding Grammar School continues to provide a "a good quality of education", according to Government inspectors.

The latest Ofsted report about the school, published yesterday, confirmed that students' overall progress is above the national average and most teaching is "well-planned".

The grammar school, among the top ten secondary schools in Lincolnshire for overall progress by Year 11 in their best eight subjects, showed "exceptionally strong" results in maths, sciences and humanities, subjects that include law, history, geography and politics.

But the school was less successful in English and modern languages, such as French, German and Spanish, for which the report said that progress was "below average".

The Ofsted report, following a one-day inspection last month, also found some teaching was "not routinely challenging" and "at times, students are not sufficiently interested or enthusiastic about their lessons.

Headmaster Steven Wilkinson said: "We're pleased with the report and it's a step in the right direction,

"The school needed to have a drive on raising results and we spent a lot of time establishing what needed to change.

"Ofsted can see the things that we've started to put in place have addressed what was picked up at the last inspection in November 2015.

"I'm also pleased that the inspectors picked up on our progress in how the school communications and how students speak positively about their experiences here, particularly in the sixth form."

Spalding Grammar School has been rated as 'Good' by Ofsted after a one-day inspection in February 2019.

An extract from the report, which confirmed the school's "Good" judgement in November 2015, stated: "Pupils' overall progress has improved to above average, when compared to that of other pupils nationally.

"The achievement of disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities was also above average, an improvement on previous years.

"Most learning is well-planned and pupils follow instructions from their teachers promptly

"At times, however, the pace of learning was slower and pupils were not routinely challenged to make strong progress."

Mr Wilkinson said: "We know there are inconsistencies and we all believe that things can get better.

"But there were no surprises in the report and Ofsted recognises that we have a very accurate picture of where we are and what we need to do."